Post Confession Blues
by PilchardSouffleNo.1
Summary: Post 5x12 Caroline has no choice but to deal with her mistakes, and the only way is head on, whether she is ready or not. She might get a little more than she bargained for though!
1. Chapter 1

**This story just formed itself, Tyler seems really awful to start off, but he'll improve. Major Klaroline :D with some Steroline friendship, no romance there. I'm also going to deal with the inevitable hayley issue later, I mean, we can be fans and dream, but it has happened unfortunately, and in order for Klaroline to ever work they'll have to deal with their various issues! I don't own TVD or any of the wonderful characters. Enjoy!**

She sits, every second guilty, guilty that she wonders where he is. Whether it's real. Whether she's been used. She can't bare to think about the possibility that she's out of his system now, that he's back in his town as if nothing ever happened between them, while she sits here silent and shattered. She can only bare to picture Stefan's face, because he is the only one who understands. She hears the shower upstairs and prays that no one comes knocking while she's still here at the Salvatores, she keeps imagining Tyler ripping her to shreds, can't rid her mind of the thought of his teeth tearing her flesh apart, limps scattered across the forest. It makes her shiver, knowing the man she used to love could cause her such irrational terror. She wishes somehow this could be Klaus' fault, so that she could complain to him about it, after all she made no promises to never contact him again. It seems desperate though, to run back to him so soon.

And then she hears twigs crunching outside. Her chest feels hollow as her hearing picks up a figure approaching. Maybe she's had too much to drink but she stumbles up the stairs as quickly as she can manage to Stefan's bedroom door, she crouches down inside and waits for him to come out of the bathroom. She pulls out her phone immediately and calls Klaus, without even thinking, it's like a reflex. He doesn't pick up. So it's true, she thinks, he just wanted me once to satisfy some morbid curiosity. She doesn't bother leaving a message.

Stefan opens the bathroom door, completely clothed to her relief, although she thinks the relief has more to do with her current infatuation with Klaus more than a disinterest in Stefan.

"Caroline, what are you doing here?" He asks looking down at her "Or, down there?"

"Oh," She laughs "I heard someone out side, and I'm kind of on edge at the moment."

"It's probably Damon you know."

"Right." She smiles, kicking herself inside for her snap reaction.

"Did you want to stay here tonight?"

"Thanks so much, but no." She pauses "But could you do me a favour?"

"Sure..." He says with uncertainty.

"Can you let my mum know that I've gone back to college? I think I just need to get away from all of this, you know - live in denial for a while longer." There is something unconvincing about her tone.

"And you're going to drive back to college now, in your state?"

She looks down at herself, she doesn't look that bad does she?

"I mean mental state." He says.

She feels her phone vibrating in her pocket.

"Can you check whether it's Damon downstairs? I have to see if this is my mum."

He smiles and flashes from the room.

She pulls it from her pocket; Klaus.

She answers. "Hello."

"I thought you wanted me out of your life. So you could be free to live out your plans." He states a little emotionlessly.

She pauses.

"I did - I do, I just-" She fumbles "I've had a bit to drink that's all and Tyler is unpredictable right now, I heard a noise, I-." She quickly catches herself. Stop rambling now, she thinks, he doesn't need to hear how desperate you sound.

"What do you mean Tyler is unpredictable right now?"

Of course he'd zone in on the part about Tyler.

"He found out, about, what we did, together, in the woods."

His voice is silent on the other end of the phone, he cant help a smile creeping up on his lips, but he understands what this means for Caroline as well, everything she dreaded. She couldn't be free with this hanging over her.

"What do you want me to do?" He asks.

"No, no, I'm just overreacting, you don't need to do anything. But I wanted to ask you something before you hang up." She closes her eyes wondering how to phrase these next words, whether she even should.

"Ask away."

There is silence for a minute, while she attempts to jump over the barrier her mind has created to keep her safe, and to prevent her from ever taking a risk.

"What did it mean to you? - I mean, am I out of your system now, did you get what you wanted, are you happy to leave things where they are right now, do you want me to delete your number, and not contact you again, do you want to forget, do you want me to forget?" She takes a breath now, it's out. Out of her hands, and in his.

He is silent now too, convinced she's finished the supplies of four liquor stores tonight. The Caroline he knows would not say those things, she'd keep her head high and refuse to admit that she was anything but her fine, well composed self.

"You can come here and ask me in person, my view is not going to change in the next few decades, yours might. So come when you know what you feel, when you're sure of what you want and I'll be honest with you then."

She can hear voices in the background on the other line.

"I have to go now." He says, before hanging up.

She notices that Stefan isn't back, she closes her eyes for a second praying that he's having a heart to heart with his brother downstairs. She walks down, can hear the wind rushing in through the front door, and walks into a dark room with only one thing visible, the reflection of Tyler's eyes in the dark. She starts crying as he walks towards her, muttering to herself, _Please Tyler, let me explain..._

Before anything can happen Stefan is in front of her lunging at Tyler, pushing him away.

"Tyler, you have to leave before you do something you regret!"

Tyler bares his teeth and lunges at Stefan, Caroline doesn't need vampire senses to smell the liquid courage in him.

"Caroline, run." Stefan breathes as he hurls Tyler into the basement. She is frozen in horror. She can't begin to image the pain she has caused him to do this. She feels Stefan grab her hand as they sprint to her car together, she feels the wind rushing across her veins, but the force of it feels like it's dragging her backwards, back into the house. Caroline jumps into the drivers seat and Stefan in the passengers, she backs out of the incredibly long driveway as fast as she can and speeds off into the night.

"Stefan, what do we do?" She panics.

There is no answer, she turns her head to see Stefan crumpled in the seat next to her, werewolf bite radiating from his neck.

"Oh god, Stefan hold on! Hold on!" She screeches hysterically as she corrects her path towards New Orleans. She knows how she feels, guilty, and it's only going to be worse if she becomes responsible for the death of her best friend. _This is all my fault,_ she whispers over and again, crying and speeding. She doesn't care about anything else right now, Stefan has to live. And only the man she can't seem to live without can save him.

**If I get more than 10 reviews I promise to have another chapter up within a week of review number 10! :) Thanks for the support! :) PS I'll focus more on the writing later, was just focussing on the story mainly for this chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry that this chapter is so short! But I made a promise and I'll keep going ASAP. And I will no longer 'hold my chapters hostage' in return for reviews ;) Don't worry there is more coming I promise :) Enjoy - also any points you want me to address feel free to say, I'm open to all sorts of input…. unless I really hate a character, then I can be sort of biased! oops! :)**

"Oh great, that's just what I wanted to happen!" She mutters as the hard chokes to death around her. She's been talking to herself for hours now, nothing from Stefan, she not sure how this is meant to happen but the bite seems to be affecting him much more than it did her. _Okay Caroline, what the heck do we do now? _She's not sure she has any tears left when she realises she isn't human anymore, she doesn't need tears, or a car for that matter. She jumps out immediately and speeds over to Stefan pulling him over her shoulder feeling all of her muscles tense, if she doesn't start running now she never will. She wonders if vampires get an adrenaline rush in times of need. Her leg muscles begin to burn the closer she gets to New Orleans, she wonders why more vampires don't do this, there must be a reason vampires use cars right? There has to be. Although she hopes she's wrong, she hopes they're all just lazy. She has no idea where she is at this point, she's praying her heart knows where to go, and that she's seen enough signs to be heading in the right direction. She's about to collapse in a heap, but she can't, she doesn't have a choice. If she stops running Stefan is dead, the man who hasn't yet left her is still alive, and she's going to bloody keep it that way whether it kills her or not -and if it kills her she'll have less to worry about, a few less decisions to make.

She doesn't understand how, but she makes it to the centre of the damn French Quarter, the last place on Earth she'd really intended to be in the next century, or thirty centuries. She supposes she looks like hell and she couldn't really care less right now, she wishes she could have some luck, once, that she could keep one friend.

"Stefan?"

Caroline turns around to see Rebekah, and then everything fades. She feels herself slipping, her vision fading. _Help him,_ she whispers_, save him_... but she's not sure the words ever went from her mind to her mouth. She doesn't even care where she is now, if Stefan's dead they can bury her in a coffin and seal it shut for good. She wants no part in this world if the only decent people there are end up dead. No part at all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey everyone! Thanks so much for the reviews! I love the positivity :) Sorry that the story gets a little dark, or will get a little dark in places, but it will all be for the good of our major favourite characters ;) Just reiterating this is a Klaroline story all the way, I'm not aiming for serious character death because I don't see the writers of tvd actually doing that but who knows, so we'll see where it goes. **

There is a drill, just loud enough to be annoying, it is the first thing she hears. Then she smells cheese, rubbery old cheese, overwhelmingly rubbery old cheese. It smells so awful she almost wants to eat it. Almost. She can feel sheets between her fingers, rough plasterboard sheets. And then she sees it, the inside of her hospital room. It all seems so human, and ordinary, and frankly cliché. And the walls are a horribly dull shade of white, she supposes it's no longer white if it's a shade - right? Why is she not more focussed? She can't seem to pinpoint a single fragment of the past few hours, or the time before she was here. Where ever here is. There are all sorts of human noises around and they're driving her mad, surely there is something more important...? And then it hits her. She jumps out of the bed and lunches towards the door, her legs still a little tender. There are a few nurses running around the place, but they all seem too distracted to notice her so she flashes from the room. She almost makes it to the elevator but she's caught in the firm grip of a vampire. She struggles, scanning the room around her where the nurses continue as if nothing is happening. Compelled? She looks back at the vampire in front of her.

"Listen, I need to get out of here, I-"

"That's not going to happen, I've been told to keep you here."

"Told by who?"

"Me." She hears a voice from inside the elevator, her heart jumps. He motions for the vampire to let go of her and leave as he steps out.

"Caroline." He smiles.

"Elijah." She'd normally be more warm and receptive, but there are only two men she wants to see alive and well before her right now, and Elijah is not one of them.

"Listen Elijah, I need to find Stefan, I need to know what's happening."

"Stefan is fine, Rebekah took him to Klaus."

She lets out the breath she didn't realise she'd been holding. "Then why am I here?"

"Klaus was very busy, Rebekah and I decided that you needed to recover, and that Klaus should deal with his problem before we threw another, er, complication, into the mix."

Caroline can't help laughing at this. "Right, _I'm_ a complication. Firstly, and no offence, but I don't like being 'dealt with' and I'm not sure that Klaus will be all that keen on your little stunt either, but honestly I couldn't care less about anything other than seeing Stefan right now, so if I promise to leave Klaus alone completely while I'm here, can you take me to Stefan, right now?"

"Of course." He says reasonably, he looks her up and down. "Did you want to get changed first?"

She suddenly feels very self-conscious under her dazzling backless hospital gown. Thankfully she can feel she has some basic undergarments on so the humiliation is not completely unbearable, or at least that's what she tells herself.

It's close to nightfall and Caroline walks along the streets of New Orleans with one of the oldest men alive on the planet, well dead really but who's asking for specifics? She thinks he looks pretty good for a man who's been dead for over a thousand years. She'd prefer to be standing next to his brother right now, but she's not about to let anyone, or herself for that matter, know that she's aching for Klaus' skin beneath her fingertips... again.

"So Miss Forbes, I hear my brother took a trip up to Mystic Falls recently."

She nearly chokes at how close he is to her train of thought.

"Yes."

"And he paid you a visit I take it?"

"It was very brief." She says hoping he'll leave the topic alone.

"I'm just trying to understand if the werewolf bite on Stefan's neck was a result of my brother stirring up trouble?"

"Indirectly, I guess, I mean, I don't think he came back to cause trouble, trouble just seems to follow Klaus whether he indents it or not. I don't think that's really his fault." She doesn't know why she's defending Klaus of all people, after all, she has been the one telling him to get the hell out of her life, why can't she seem to do the same?

Elijah just nods to himself, maybe what she's saying resonates within him at some level, but she really just wants to see Stefan.

Elijah leaves her at the door to Stefan's room, she assumes the house belongs to the original family, but she doesn't really know. She's not sure how serious Elijah is about keeping her away from Klaus. She walks in to find Stefan sitting half out of bed talking on the phone, she listens for a second before hearing him refer to his brother and hang up.

"Hey, where have you been?"

"Oh, just in the vampire ward at the hospital, it's kind of creepy actually. The originals have compelled themselves a whole hospital ward." She smiles at him. "Are you okay now?"

"Yeah, thanks Caroline. I'm glad I have a friend like you to run me places." They both laugh.

"So, what do we do now?" She asks.

"Well, since we're down here a bit of sightseeing couldn't hurt, and I've heard about a few good places for soul searching."

"Right, who's soul needs searching? Because if it's mine those better places better be well equipped, you know, with Vodka."

**Just incase you were all thinking 'wow, this writer updates so often!' it's the weekend and I'm feeling particularly inspired, trust me it will not last, so please review - they keep me going, and they help me avoid the dark hell of writers block in which ideas refuse to come and motivation reads -11 on a scale of 1 to 10. Am always keen on positive or constructive feedback, and any ideas you'd like added :) Happy reading!**


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